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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Islamic
militants on Wednesday unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks on
Egyptian Army checkpoints in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula,
killing at least 64 soldiers, country officials said.

The
coordinated assaults, which included up to 70 militants, came a day
after Egypt's president pledged to step up the battle against Islamic
militants and two days after the country's state prosecutor was
assassinated in the capital, Cairo. The BBC reported that the clashes
are ongoing, with militants reportedly overtaking a main police
station.

The
officials said scores of militants were besieging Sheikh Zuweid's
main police station, shelling it with mortars and rocket-propelled
grenades and exchanging fire with dozens of policemen inside. Reuters
reported that militants planted bombs along a road between the police
station and an army camp to deter reenforcements.

"We
are under siege, the militants didn't storm inside it so far, or else
I wouldn't be speaking to you right now," Col. Mohamed Soliman
told Daily News Egypt from inside the police station

Al
Jazeera, citing a local news, reported that ambulances had trouble
reaching those injured due to the crossfire.

The
blood-soaked executioners of ISIS have spared neither women nor
children since the jihadist army established its caliphate a year
ago, putting an estimated 74 kids and even more women to death for
such offenses as practicing “magic” and refusing to fast during
Ramadan.

A
total of 3,027 people have been executed by ISIS since it declared
itself a state under strict Islamic law in Syria and Iraq last June,
according to a new report by the UK-based group, Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights.

"Many
of the charges against those executed are recorded as blasphemy and
spying, but others include sorcery, sodomy, practicing as a Shia
Muslim," the report states.

Just
this week, two children whose ages were not known were crucified in
the Mayadin, Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria after ISIS accused
them of not properly fasting during Ramadan. The children’s bodies,
put on public display on crossbars, each bore a sign explaining their
violation during the holy month for Muslims that runs June 17 to July
17. With each execution justified by ISIS' medieval interpretation of
the Koran, the group is attempting to portray itself as the true
practitioners of Islam, say experts.

“Underlying
all these executions is the apocalypse ideology of the final battle
between the believers and the unbelievers,” said Jasmine Opperman,
the director of Southern Africa Operations at the Terrorism, Research
& Analysis Consortium. “ISIS is using executions to show its
followers -- and would-be followers -- that the group is the only
true representative of believers, not only in word, but action, which
is why executions are featured so prominently.”

Other
children died fighting for their lives.

“The
violent Islamist group appears to demonstrate a particular interest
in children, releasing videos of children fighting in cages and
undertaking military training,” the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights group said. “The report also details moves undertaken by the
group to entice children to join, which include setting up offices
called "cubs of the caliphate" that recruit children to
fight for ISIS.”

The
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report
in February, documenting the many horrors ISIS has imposed on
children who are Kurdish, Yazidi, Christian and even Muslim. Children
– even those who are mentally challenged – are being tortured,
crucified, buried alive, used as suicide bombers and sold as sex
slaves, the report said.

“ISIS
is hoping to spur current supporters around the world who are
dormant, of which there are millions, into joining their caliphate by
advertising acts like these, of which there are millions,” said
Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for the Clarion Project, a
nonprofit organization that educates the public about the threat of
Islamic extremism. “They know that they can greatly increase their
numbers by appealing to current radicals rather than the broader
masses.”

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Yousif Ibrahim, the head monk at Saint Matthew's Monastery, laments the ever present struggle the Christian community faces in Iraq(photo: Abed al Qaisi)

AL-FAF,
Iraq -- Yousif Ibrahim paces down the 1,600-year-old chamber room of
Saint Matthew's Monastery passing rows of empty polished-wood pews.
Ornate crystal chandeliers hang from the arched ceiling above him.
The room smells of dust and incense, and its silence is peaceful.
Outside of the ancient walls, however, the battle for Iraq is raging.

"We
can see the battles and the airstrikes from here in front of us,
especially at night. The sky lights up at night, but we of course are
not scared. God protects us," Ibrahim, one of three monks who
resides in the monastery, says.

Situated
on the side of Mount Al-Faf in North Iraq's Nineveh Plains, St.
Matthew's Monastery is recognized as one of the oldest Christian
monasteries in Iraq. Today, the beige stone structure looks down on
the rolling hills of one of Iraq's most active frontlines against the
Islamic State, less than four miles away.

The
horizon is spotted with pluming towers of white and black smoke from
U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and heavy artillery fire. From this
frontline, Islamic State territory stretches back to Mosul, the
group's largest Iraqi stronghold.

The
proximity of the Islamic State to St. Matthew's means the monastery
is constantly at risk. The extremist group is known for destroying
churches, museums and other culturally and historically significant
sites.

Last
week, the militants seized the Syrian city of Palmyra and its ruins,
described by the United Nations as "one of the most important
cultural centers of the ancient world." The city's fall left the
world holding its breath in anticipation of the UNESCO World Heritage
site's destruction.

St.
Matthew's is safely under Kurdish Peshmerga military control for now.
But Sahar Karaikos, one of six students at the monastery, fears what
could happen if the Islamic State advances closer.

"We
are not scared, because our teachers give us a feeling of peace here,
but we know we are on the frontlines, and in seconds the Islamic
State could be here," Karaikos says. "I don't even want to
think or speak about the destruction the Islamic State would cause if
they took our monastery."

While
monks at the monastery say they are confident God and the Peshmerga
forces will protect the site, they have removed their most precious
relics, including centuries-old Christian manuscripts. The tomb of
the monastery's namesake, St. Matthew, lies empty -- the bones have
been moved north into the relatively safe territory of the Kurdish
Regional Government.